Continuing my life journey and how I was led, this section deals with our return from Europe to Australia and reconnecting with family — my father and Alex’s parents, brothers, wives and children. It is another part of an upcoming book or website section entitled Divinely Led.
Part 5: Back to Australia and Onto Asia
Home, Job Search and Church Involvement
House Purchase
The first month in Australia we kept busy visiting various offices and getting needed documents after not only having been away from Australia for many years, but now upon returning, living in a different state. So we had to get new driver licenses, Medicare cards, and also sign up for unemployment benefits. Cleveland, where all the offices were, was about three kilometers away from where we were staying so we either walked or took the bus.
We also had to find a place to live and started looking for a house to purchase, rather than a rental situation. We stopped at an estate agent, and a lady took us around the area. It was much less built up then, and where she drove us into the next suburb of Victoria Point (where I now live in a retirement village next to a mall and close to countless eating places, medical establishments and retail shops) felt like we were going to a country area. Everything was new to us and the whole area was to a large degree undeveloped.
The several homes that the agent showed us were unimpressive. But in one of the homes, another agent was showing her clients and we got to briefly chat with her. She later contacted us and showed us what became our first home and which we owned and enjoyed for about five years. Then we were led to buy the home across the street which was bigger, had a pool and served us for almost two decades.
The second agent’s action was not considerate of the first agent who first took us out and understandably caused some upset, which we found ourselves in the middle of. Human relationships are often challenging and laws of communication and respect are often broken. I do hope that in the end the two agents worked it out among themselves and split the commission, which would have been the right and fair thing to do.
Because we had a large deposit, getting a small loan was easy even though we didn’t have a job. With the finances in place, the house was ready for us to move into in only three weeks.
Job Search
The next task was finding a job. We were required to make at least three attempts each week to contact a potential employer and keep a log of having done that in order to get our fortnightly allowance – which was adequate to live on. We tried many and various options without success. We wanted to write on the home front, so we thought of ideas such as cleaning offices at night and writing during the day. Alex thought of a gardening job. But looking back, none of those were the best, and God had something much better in mind. Often, when things don’t work out, it can be protection from an undesirable situation.
One thing we didn’t want to do was teach in Australian schools because of the discipline problems – which have since become much worse, and teachers are leaving because of abuse and burnout. But as time went on, we started seeing ads for English teachers overseas – mostly China and Korea. We were even getting offers in the mail.
The first one came from Hebei University in China. Alex was seriously considering it, but the pay was very low and the city where the school was very polluted. We were also offered and thinking about a language academy in Daejon in Korea and one or two other positions. In the end we were led to Korea Nazarene University where we remained for almost four years. The inspiring story of that leading is in the next chapter.
Involvement in Local Churches
While in Liberec, our last chapter in the Czech Republic, we came in contact with a missionary couple that were connected with the Reformed Christian tradition. This led us into looking into their beliefs, which to some degree resonated. As a result, when we came to the Redlands, we joined a nearby Dutch Reformed Church, which consisted of a high percentage of members with Dutch background. For the six months that we were in our home before going to teach in Korea, this group proved helpful and supportive. They prayed for us, and we also joined their mid-week Bible Study group and built some relationships.
After the September 11 New York attacks, which got us off balance and almost stopped us from going to Korea, we also re-connected with the local Adventist church in Victoria Point as we felt they might have some insights through their prophetic understanding. The pastor arranged for a deacon, Len, who lived quite close to our home to give us a ride to church as we didn’t have a car. This was a retirement village church with members mostly the age of our parents. But it was a good group and we got to know quite a few of them.
Both church connections proved very beneficial as one of the members of the Reformed Church knew a German couple who proved to be very good house sitters/renters while we were away. Len of the Adventist church became the liaison between us and the couple in our home and was on hand to help when a need arose. We would reconnect with one or both church groups during our summer and winter breaks from teaching. It was good to have these connections.
Again, we were led in various ways to the right people and places and kept from accepting jobs that wouldn’t have been the best.
For other information on divine leading, see Spirit Helpers and Guides
Here is a short reflection on being divinely led.